Forbeshas
released their list of the highest-grossing actors of 2014, and leading
the pack are Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. While Lawrence’s star
status is unarguable thanks to her Academy Award win for The Silver Linings Playbook and major roles in two blockbuster franchises: she’s the reluctant face of a revolution in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1and she played vengeful mutant shapeshifter Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The total gross of her movies this year: $1.4 billion.

As for Pratt, he is beloved for playing the human Labrador puppy Andy Dwyer on NBC’s Parks & Recreation, the seventh and final season of which premieres in 2015. The final run of Parks & Rec coincides with Pratt’s newly minted movie star status. After strong turns in dramatic fare like Moneyball and Zero Dark Thirty, his lead vocal turn as Emmet in The LEGO Movieproved his personality can hold a film together and his headlining role as Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy showed the world that he’s got the chops, moves and charisma to be a major star. Pratt’s box office share: $1.2 billion.

Chris Pratt has lined up another potential oddball franchise by signing on for Cowboy Ninja Vikingand is reportedly circling a part in The Magnificent Sevenalongside Denzel Washington, but 2015 has one big entry featuring Pratt: director Colin Trevorrow’s highly anticipated Jurassic World, the first trailer
for which managed to capture (or at least manufacture) some of the
spirit of Steven Spielberg’s original. It’s a box office risk, but one
with huge potential dividends.

As for Jennifer Lawrence, her Hunger Games run ends with Mockingjay – Part 2 (November 2015), one of the safest box office bets of the year. She is expected to reunite with her Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell for true story drama Joy, and will return as Mystique for X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.

Movie stars come and go and while most arrive full-blown like Lawrence, who made a huge impression with Winter’s Bone and has held our fascination since, we watched Pratt steal scene after scene on Parks & Rec and
grow into his film roles with each part. These two represent a
generation of stars with serious acting chops and charisma to burn.
We’ll see if they replicate their success in 2015.